Welsh Girl living in Scotland who loves to cook and eat!

December 19, 2017December 19, 2017

Cranberry Sauce with Orange & Port

Christmas dinner would not be complete with a dollop of luscious homemade Cranberry Sauce and it really is very simple to make your own. It involves just a bit of weighing, heating and stirring. It’s a bit like making a quick jam.

You can buy fresh cranberries in most supermarket at this time of year. If you love cranberry sauce as much as I do, then it’s worth making double as it keeps well in sealed sterilized jars for several months. Once opened, just keep covered and stored in the fridge. I love cranberry sauce with leftover turkey and ham on boxing day. It’s also great in a sandwich with brie!

When you make your own cranberry sauce, it will fill your kitchen with the most wonderful aroma of berries and oranges and while you have the bottle of Port open, you may as well pour out a tipple to sip and get in the festive spirit!

This recipe makes just under 2 jars of cranberry sauce which is usually plenty for Christmas dinner and your Boxing Day leftovers. You can sterilize your jam jars in the dishwasher. Alternatively wash well in hot soapy water, rinse, then pop in the microwave on high for a few minutes, a quarter filled with water. Then pour out the water and dry completely in a hot oven.

Once you have made your own Cranberry Sauce you will be completely converted to the homemade version. It tastes so amazingly fruity and zingy, really bringing out the flavour of your Turkey. Enjoy with your dinner!

Ingredients

300g of fresh cranberries
125g of caster sugar
65ml of water
40ml of Port
The zest (finely grated rind) of most of an orange

Method

Put all the ingredients into a saucepan and heat while stirring with a wooden spoon.
Let everything bubble away, still stirring, until the berries begin to pop and it starts to look like jam. This should take around 10 minutes
Take a tiny amount out on a spoon and allow it to cool before tasting as it will be very hot! If it is not sweet enough, add more sugar but if it is too sweet add some fresh lemon juice
Cranberries contain lots of pectin so even though it might seem pretty runny when hot, it will set when it cools
Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal